Hi, so i have the Powercolor 3870 pcs version (800mhz gpu clock and 1170mhz memory clock). The bios on this card is 071, while i have been able to find a 075 bios (havnt updated yet though). Found the bios on a forum but cant on powercolor website. Reason why i wanted to update, was that cant really overclock using ati overdrive , as it mostly fails on whatever settings i use (did incrementally). Did get up to only 830mhz on core, but the memory clock refuses to go above 1170mhz. Has anyone used this bios, any issues with it on vista or something?

Also, although the cooler keeps the gpu cool, the ram stays fairly hot as there is no cooling on it. Is there anyway to check the temps of the ram chips, or its no problem of overclocking the memory clock?

GPU-Z says that the subvendor is HIS, whats up with that? thanks

the only reason to flash a video card with a new bios would be to volt mod it OR to set a permanent overclock...its not worth it otherwise..

well the only reason why i want to overclock now, is that im playing Company of heroes. You would think that this new card would run it at the higest settings (at 1680x1050) . But the game crashes during intense battles, and there is video tearing. WHen it crashes there is an error message in windows saying that the ati drive or something was reset due to some problem.

Tearing = more fps than your monitor's refresh rate, so use V-sync if it really bothers you that much. What could be causing the other problem might actually be a driver issue, so I'd write down the specific error and do some research on it.

thanks for the reply. ill check how to enable vsync from CCC as there is no vsync optin in Company of heroes. There isnt any error message that is displayed, is just says

"Display driver stopped responding and restarted successfully".

When i only increase the gpu clock to 810 (default is 800), this error starts happening also. Even 3dmark06 crashs then. Ill see what i can find, i have the updated drivers and all.

EDIT: the error is atikmdap stopped responding. I see some other people might have a problem with this on vista.

I have got tearing in crysis at <30fps and my refresh rate is 85 Hz

argh, doesnt seem to be any proper fix for this atikmdap error. If i had known about this before, would have gone with the 8800gt

New drivers will be out soon, so be happy with what youve got.

Peace.

ok an update!

Initially i updated the bios to 075 (from 071) as i thought it was that problem (yeah im a noob). I already installed the latest drivers from ati (CCC was already the latest 8.1). Problem got worse.

Reinstalled from the original Powercolor cd, has an older driver 8.430 version (still dont know how to tell versions apart). The problem was reduced. So then i though why not go back to 071 bios.

By mistake, i flashed to 079 bios. It defaulted the memory clock to 1200 (from 1170), gpu clock being the same 800. However it seems ok now. I cranked up the gpu clock to 900 (ati overdrive's max option) and ran 3dmark06 perfect. Company of heroes also runs fine now.

BUT when i even increase the memory clock to 1205 (from 1200) 3dmark06 crashes after a while give same driver problem. I dont know why memory clock cant be increased. Oh well , problem solved for now, until the new drivers come out.

BTW, you can flash back to an older driver 071? I tried it before but it wouldnt work. Only going to a higher bios worked.

There should be nothing stopping you, however if there is, set the -f (force flash) flag when flashing and it should do it regardless of version. Your card may have bad memory, although technically no OC is guaranteed, if the memory runs fine at stock it isnt actually faulty, it just isn't great. I don't know what manufacturer will accept an RMA because the card doesn't overclock.

i did try the -f thing but it wouldnt work. However im on the 079 bios now, and it seems to be running fine now. The gpu is overclocked to about 835 (can do more but no need) and the memory is clocked at 1200mhz (cant go more than this). But yeah maybe the memory doesnt seem to good maybe. WEll i hope the new ati drivers , firstly actually come, secondly solve the problems.